Sewage Treatment Process: Ponds & Bacteria.

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There are different ways to approach water treatments. One of the ways used in Victoria is called Bacteria Lagoons. The mechanism of this water system is very simple,relies on the biological principal of bacteria decomposing organic or inorganic complex compounds to more simple ones.

The process starts by the sewage flowing in a very slow speed through the ponds, then groups of bacteria clean the water by breaking down the pollutants into more simple chemicals compounds. The process could take between 30 to 35 days

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There are basically two types of ponds and bacteria:

The Aerobic Ponds: It is part of the first stage of the system. It helps the bacteria to break down more complex compounds to more simple ones. Under these conditions some dangerous gases are produced, so special controls need to be put in place.

The anaerobic ponds : In this phase, oxygen is required and needs to be pumped by aerators. The oxygen helps reduce the odors as they are produced by anaerobic reactions when the system is lacking oxygen and compounds such as hydrogen sulfide and dimethyl sulfide.

Examples

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In Victoria, the Western Treatment Plant located in Werribee occupies around 10.500 hectares. It is one of the world leaders in technical and environmental innovation. This plan processes around 50% of Melbourne's water and produces almost 40 billion liters of recycled water per year.

Source: Melbourne Water

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Yarra Valley Water provides water supply and sewerage to over 1.7 million people and has around 9,004 Km of sewer mains. The plant has an EPA licence to a standard suitable for discharge to the environmental. The discharge of the treated water is done on either a waterway.

Source: Yarra Valley Water

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